A Gentle Reminder from Hinton’s General Store

“I am needing the money Very much, please accommodate me with it right away and much oblige”

Well now, pull up a chair and let me share a little piece of our history with you. I was looking through the archives and found this lovely letter from May 8, 1884, written by Mr. John Cooper, who ran a general store right here in Hinton, West Virginia. The paper is aged to a beautiful golden-yellow, and you can still see the crisp fold lines where it was tucked away long ago. Mr. Cooper wrote it in a warm, brown ink that is still quite easy to read, even after all these years.

In the letter, Mr. Cooper is reaching out to Laban Lemley about a nineteen-dollar debt he held against him and a Mr. Prince. It seems he had asked for it once before but had not heard back. He was not being harsh, though; he was just a businessman in a small town trying to keep things running. He explains quite plainly that he is needing the money ‘Very much’ and asks for his neighbor’s help in settling the matter right away. It is a wonderful example of how folks communicated back then, with a mix of professional business and a personal, neighborly touch.

When we hold a letter like this, we are holding a tiny heartbeat from the past. It reminds us that history is not just about big events; it is about the everyday honesty and the simple struggles of the people who walked these streets before us. It is a call to remember the value of a person’s word and the connections that tie a community together, then and now. It is a small story, sure, but those are often the ones that matter the most.

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